In the wake of the WikiLeaks scandal in 2010, the National Security Agency purchased software from Raytheon to counter a Private Manning-like "insider threat." But that software went uninstalled at the NSA's Remote Operations Center facility in Hawaii where former contractor Edward Snowden worked, according to a new report on Friday from Reuters.

Unnamed current and former government officials told Reuters that the software was never installed at the Hawaii facility because of "bandwidth issues." The available wide area network bandwidth to the outpost was not enough for the software to be downloaded and deployed to its local network, or for the software to connect to servers back in the continental US with enough reliability to ensure that the software would work, according to one official.

Raytheon's Sureview Insider Threat Management software includes agent software that streams back auditing data on user and system activities, allowing administrators to reconstruct security events. The agent software watches for attempts to surreptitiously move data off secured systems to external storage, including downloads and screenshots. The software is supposed to even work when users on mobile devices take themselves offline.

According to Reuters, the software was supposed to be deployed at the Hawaii NSA facility before Snowden started working there in the spring of 2013 in order to comply with an executive order by President Barack Obama in the wake of the WikiLeaks scandal.

It's not clear that this particular failure had any direct impact on Snowden's ability to get classified documents, as he had already begun to download documents from NSA's network while working as a Dell contractor at another NSA facility in the year before. Previous reports indicated that Snowden had obtained the user credentials of NSA officials to elevate his access to the NSA's intranet.

It's not clear that this particular failure had any direct impact on Snowden's ability to get classified documents, as he had already begun to download documents from NSA's network while working as a Dell contractor at another NSA facility in the year before.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

The next sentence seems to suggest that there was some kind of latency issue in "phoning home" more than the actual download of the software. I'm in no position to determine whether that was grounds for delaying deployment, but I can imagine a scenario where the software would mistake the high latency for an attempt to "go off the grid".

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or for the software to connect to servers back in the continental US with enough reliability to ensure that the software would work, according to one official.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

One does not simply MAIL classified information!

Actually you can mail documents up to secret classification. But nobody said this software is classified.

Keep the NSA stuff coming. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

I'm still blown away someone working for Dell can tap the NSA servers.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

NSA: "hi, we're planning to install some vital security software on our system, but it needs to phone home frequently and it appears our current connection can't support the data load."

ISP: "oh, what's that, your connections too slow? Hn, and it looks like you have our highest tier package. I guess you'll have to switch to another provider...oops!" Starts rubbing his nipples, "Mnn... It looks like we're your only choice in that area...hnnnn, tell me more about how awful our service is, ohhh yeah"

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

Too bad too because it would have been a nice excuse to improve Hawaii's internet connectivity!;-)

Excuses like this are actually pretty common among the islands despite the state government's attempts to guide the local industry to make improvements. But even improving service within the state would only take us so far. The fiber linking us to the continent has supposedly not been improved as often as one would hope - new fiber from North America to Asia has been laid bypassing Hawaii. Last I heard, Hawaii was 47th in internet speed - our isolation from the rest of the US does us no favors.

The irony is that your argument also proves incompetency on the NSA part. No matter how strong your system's security/crypto is if the people running it are careless or incompetent enough to let their credentials get stolen/used by unauthorized persons.

rubbing his nipples, "Mnn... It looks like we're your only choice in that area...hnnnn, tell me more about how awful our service is, ohhh yeah"

Following this entry into fantasyland, we can consider the NSA's solution to the credentialing problem, which is two men, or two humans, in a room.... A couple bags of chips, a six pack of Red Bull... Two increasingly dull consoles....

NO amount of SOFTWARE is going to deter a human who is determined to leak data!. Why do you think Snowden got away with it ?. He knew all the tricks the "bad guys are going to do" and countered it ever step of the way. Why do you think p with him ?. It is a great game for Putin to play while it lasts and it will last for a long time ...

Any system administrator worth his or her salary would, if sufficiently determined, find ways around "anti-leak software", especially anti-leak software produced on spec by a defense contractor for a manager who's just trying to check a box.

Proof that the shitty state of American broadband is a national security issue.

STATE MANDATED GIGABIT FIBER FOR ALL!

or LTE/4G for all... (or at least fixed to a single cell tower internet) but still internet that allows netflix.my uncle has home 4g internet (eXplor net I think) 100Gb cap for about 70 dollars. "cheap" bell does not want it fix/enable VDSL2 over POTS

Ahhh, enlightenment comes. "Bandwidth issues" is GovSpeak for ineptitude. Got it. You can't tell me that Spook Central, which has a almost unlimited budget, can't afford to buy what they need anytime they want to buy it. It just goes past the realm of believability.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

how is "low bandwidth" a valid excuse? I work for a company that sells software, and we'll mail it to customers on a CD or USB drive if they can't download it for whatever reason. we also have at least one customer running their credit cards through a 4G dongle because their actual network is too unreliable.

Sean Gallagher / Sean is Ars Technica's IT Editor. A former Navy officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of IT journalism experience, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.